The Dream's Design
The Dream’s Design As understood by Lakota The Sacred * The Sacred Plane is a predominantly vacant plane that is characterized by a kind of fog or haze that encases the top three planes and separates The Dream from The Nothingness that lies beyond. The Sacred Plane also acts as a conduit in which souls can ascend from The Forgotten and be reborn into The Astral, The Elemental or The Mundane. * Ygdrassil – The Sacred Plane is also thought of as the canopy of Ygdrassil or the Eternal Tree which grows out of chaos, reaches into nothingness and shields all life or in this case, The Dream. The “trunk” of Ygdrassil being a conduit that connects the Heart of Chaos’s Abyss to The Dream. The Original Dragons monitor, protect and modify The Dream by interacting with it through Ygdrassil and The Sacred Plane and can be identified as their home. ** The Heart of Ygdrassil – The core of Ygdrassil is home to very few residents other than the Original Dragons. The others that do reside within Ygdrassil include The Guardian and The Enigma. ** The Guardian – At times this entity serves as the “right hand” of The Sentinel in maintaining balance in The Dream. At other times, The Guardian may reject the intentions of The Sentinel and serve as a part of a “checks and balances” system with The Sentinel. Either way, The Guardian can be considered as “the body” of The Sentinel and obeys no other. ** The Enigma – This entity’s existence is an unsolvable question, but is rumored to be a fragment of the Original Dreamer’s essence that consolidated within The Dream long after the Original Dreamer disappeared into The Nothingness. The Enigma is described as a silver essence that has the ability to travel through the different planes, interact and alter the “fate” of the essences within The Dream. It seems to go unnoticed by the Original Dragons or does not create any disturbances within The Dream big enough to warrant them from undoing The Enigma’s alterations, which leads to the view that it is a necessary part of The Dream and is the only probable explanation to why The Enigma is free of The Sentinel’s influence: The Sentinel can’t seem to eliminate it or alter it directly in any way, making The Enigma a nuisance to The Sentinel. The Astral * The Astral Plane is best described as a sea of ideas or dreams. On this plane exists the various essences of individuals that connect to through the Elemental Plane to the Mundane and gives rise to the physical shells of existence in the various parallel worlds. It also is the home of some terrifying beasts that prey on the dreams and ideas that exist on this realm as well as a few deities that protect them. * Precognition & Postcognition – In this astral sea, the various dreams, choices and possibilities exist and collide with various essences creating a kind of “ripple effect” down into the Mundane. A gifted seer can “ascend” to the Astral Plane, “read” the flow and predict some of these collisions that alter the essences in their world; giving rise to precognition. Likewise, a gifted seer might be able to “read” the flow and see past dreams that have collided with an essence; giving rise to postcognition. The Elemental * The Elemental Plane is where the essences of each of the elements dwell and can be called upon by skilled sorcerers and sorceresses. This realm would appear as a thin belt of many colored translucent threads that represent the flow of the different elemental energies. In each of these threads exist the nine Elemental Guardians as well as their fellow elemental beings. * The Elemental Guardians are comprised of the Nine Elemental Dragon Kings: Sora, Kaos, Cen, Ur, Raikou, Lux, Umbra, Seirei, and Aquos. ** Air/Wind – (Sora) – teal thread ** Chaos – (Kaos) – purple thread ** Earth/Metal – (Cen) – tan thread ** Fire – (Ur) – red thread ** Lightning – (Raikou) – yellow thread ** Light/Holy – (Lux) – white thread ** Shadow/Dark – (Umbra) – ebony thread ** Spirit/Biotic – (Seirei) – green thread ** Water/Ice – (Aquos) – blue thread The Mundane * Most of the physical aspects of existence manifest themselves in The Mundane and is where you can find the various worlds and life forms. There are two major categories to these worlds based on their positioning: the parallel and the transverse. ** The Parallel Worlds – these worlds lie next to each other, but are separated by The Rift. Parallel worlds often contain “parallel selves” or individuals who share the same original essence (appearance, nature, etc.) to those in other worlds, but have taken different paths in their life that lead them to be significantly different. To cross over to another parallel world, you would need an individual who is especially gifted in dimensional travel and navigation of The Rift. ** The Transverse Worlds – these worlds are oriented in a way that could best be described as “stacked like pancakes”. It is these transverse worlds that are responsible for the many varieties of demon worlds, holy realms, etc. Transverse worlds do not contain “parallel selves”, and are linked to other worlds directly. Usually all you have to do is cross through a Gate to get to one transverse world from another. In theory, all transverse worlds are connected to two or more worlds and it is believed that if you travel through enough transverse worlds that you can reach parallels, but this theory lacks evidence, thus is rendered void and null. * The Rift ** The Rift is a space between the different mundane worlds that appears as an area of total darkness except for the inconsistent “twinkling” of the mundane worlds in their respective locations. To particular creatures that traverse The Rift, a dimly glowing path or web can be seen and help them navigate this treacherous terrain. One false step in The Rift can cause one to fall into The Void and into the depths of Chaos’s Abyss, never to rejoin The Dream ever again. ** Often referred to as the “Twilight Zone” or “Purgatory” when souls become lost and don’t slip into The Forgotten Realm as they should. The Void /The Forgotten Realm * At the heart of this layer lies The Void which is akin to a black hole that sucks those who wander too close to it into the heart of Chaos’s Abyss. The ring around The Void is usually called Hell and there are nine rings that comprise Hell; as you get closer to The Void, you go deeper into Hell (the ninth ring being on the edge of The Void and the first ring being the furthest away). * Outside of the rings of Hell lies The Forgotten Realm: which is where all souls traffic through upon death and are judged. Those burdened by “sins” or unlucky enough end up being drawn closer to The Void, while those who are “blessed” end up gravitating to the outer limits of The Forgotten Realm and are reborn into The Mundane or can ascend into the higher realms. Chaos’s Abyss/The Nothingness * Chaos’s Abyss is a fathomless darkness which all existence ceases to exist. It “exists” all around The Dream and in relation to certain parts of The Dream it is referred to at times as The Nothingness, but the principles are the same. Nothing exists in The Nothingness, in Chaos’s Abyss. * The Heart of Chaos’s Abyss – Considered the center of the roots of Ygdrassil and source of the energies that flow through The Dream, The Heart of Chaos’s Abyss is also the home of The Sentinel. ** The Sentinel – An entity of immeasurable power of creation as well as destruction that was created out of The Nothingness and serves an unknown purpose. One can say that The Sentinel is the Child of Dreams and exists to maintain balance in The Dream. Others claim that The Sentinel is the Original Dreamer and source of The Dream, hence its ultimate creative and destructive powers. Either way, The Sentinel is the single entity that can alter and eliminate anything within The Dream with only one exception: The Enigma.